With the war in Iraq going well and the stock market responding as we all expected with a very nice rally, you might have a good feeling about Wall Street getting its bull back. Uh, uh!

Investors may be cheering developments in Iraq, but the bull is still chopped meat unless you guys finally decide to give in to investors’ demands for some fundamental and extensive changes in the way you do business.

Below are the things that I wrote last July needed to be done. And here is a report card on that reform.

1. Stop playing investors for suckers.

The cheerleading on TV and on Wall Street has quieted. CNBC, for example, has finally learned not to tout every rally – no matter how flimsy the justification – as the start of the next bull market that investors oughtn’t miss. Having gurus on the tube that publicly proclaim their biases helps. And there is finally a reasonable amount of objectivity and skepticism.

Major Wall Street firms paid a fine under an agreement with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. The Securities and Exchange Commission took part in the settlement, but without much enthusiasm.

The disdain Wall Street still feels for investors was in full evidence when Sandy Weill, chairman of Citigroup, was proposed to represent investors on the board of the New York Stock Exchange, despite the fact that his company paid a hefty fine for its misdeeds.

Demand: Not satisfied.

3. Provide tighter controls at companies.

Federal legislation will help. But thanks to the slow speed of our legal system – especially for those with enough money to dig in their heels – almost no corporate executive has gone to jail or been significantly punished.

Demand: Partially satisfied.

4. Give us stronger enforcement in Washington.

No luck. Instead, they put William Donaldson, former head of the NYSE, in charge of the SEC. Donaldson was at the helm of the Big Board when cheating was rampant.

Demand: Not close to being satisfied.

5. Give us accurate information on which to base our investment decisions.

After years of providing tainted information, Wall Street is finally producing research that is a little more objective. But Washington’s information is still extremely weak.

Demand: Partially satisfied.

6. Forget the weekly warnings on terrorism.

The Office of Homeland Insecurity has been quiet.

Demand: Satisfied.

7. Stop pushing the Dow up 200, 250, 300 points just because you can.

Professional traders still jerk the market up – and down – on a whim. That’s how they get the kind of action that puts food on their table, but it’s not a way to get the amateurs back in the game. Demand: Will never be satisfied.

8. Force Wall Street firms to set up independent committees of investors to monitor ethics.

Instead, we are getting monitors for Wall Street research. Wanna bet these guys will be pals of the folks who need watching?

Demand: May be satisfied.

9. Washington must do something about the economy.

The end of the war won’t magically restart the economy, which has actually been getting weaker. Wake up, Washington – people need jobs.

Demand: Not satisfied.

10. Come up with a real plan to keep the stock exchanges open in case of another terrorist attack.

The NYSE says it has a backup plan. But that’s what it said last time, and the market still had to stay shut for an entire week. We’ll take it at its word this time, only because solving the problem is in all the exchanges’ best interest.

Demand: Satisfied, but with an asterisk.

11. Give us an apology.

OK, I didn’t really expect this. If Wall Street apologizes, it would have to admit to inappropriate behavior. We’ll have to take all the whining and groveling that is going on in the investment community as the next best thing.

So, you think you are going to get your bull market back? You’re not even close.